Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 3II IN PREPARATION MORE THAN A COINCIDENCE I FIRST met Mr. Garst at this time, when his plans were focusing toward a missionary career in Africa. I, too, was born in Ohio, in 1861, in the village of Hopedale. My " earliest recollections " are of the war songs sung by my mother, who had a beautiful high soprano voice, and of my father's great grief at the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Strangely mingled with these is the memory of my first hoop-skirts, and the trial of learning to sit down correctly in them. I was of the same religious persuasion as Mr. Garst. When ten years old, I was baptized by my maternal grandfather, Jonas Hartzell, a loyal pioneer in the religious movement that had enlisted Mr. Garst's sympathies. " Father " Hartzell's home had often been the resting- v place of Isaac Errett, the Campbells, and other, leaders of the Restoration. I attended Rowland School, a private seminary in Union Springs, New York. The atmosphere of the school was rarely helpful. For the physical, there were the gymnasium life and fine boating exercise; for the intellectual, a good course of study under a strong and capable faculty, and for the spiritual, —which was earnestly cultivated,—the little Quaker meeting on a Sunday morning, and the sacred twilight hour in the parlors when Dr. Hartshorne interpreted to LAURA DELANY, 1864 ELSIE H. SMITH, 1883 HARTZELL GARST, 1890 GRETCHEN GARST, if »*" t * .,* - * *"-***** * « »*. *****»*# ,.»--,.. " us the Scriptures. It was a benediction merely to sit in the room with him. I shall always be thankful for the much chanting of Bible portions in chapel services,—" Come unto Me "; " And be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you "; " Thou wilt keep him in perfe...